New World Riesling Roundup

10 picks to taste this spring

A nice nose that blends floral notes with layered orchard and citrus fruits. This smells fresh and snappy. Rather lean on entry with vibrant acidity and a nice mineral/machine oil edge to the almond milk-edged citrus fruits. This has nice inner mouth perfumes and real succulent acids. It’s pretty dry with just enough sugar to give the acidity some buffering and lend this some flesh. Finishes a bit on the short side. 86pts

Interesting article. I love Riesling with a real passion. In fact, in January this year in London, I laid on a pop up blind tasting of 75 Rieslings from around the World. Here is a link to the article http://www.robertgiorgione.com/wine...
Unfortunately, I could not show any Finger Lake/New York State Rieslings because they are not available over here in the UK. Overall, though the Riesling wines were very well received and got great exposure and feedback.
I hope you enjoy my website and blog and continue to enjoy wine and the sharing of it.

Thank you all for your comments. Please forgive our oversight in including the Chilean pick in our "domestic" category; we've edited the change.

Please note that this was not meant to be an exhaustive list of the best Rieslings out there ("domestic" or otherwise), but simply a grouping of wines to try this season if you want to taste something new. We always appreciate your input, suggestions (always love to hear personal favorites!) and dialogue, so please keep it coming. Thanks for reading!

Rieslings are a favorite of ours. I would like to add two delicious California ones to this list. You mention the Dashe McFadden. Well, McFadden makes one himself. He has a tasting room in Hopland. Not only is it great it is priced under $20. It is awesome. How could Smith-Mardrone not be on the list? It is a little pricey but very good. The McFadden is a steal at $18. None better. Check out the Hopland Wine Trail at http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/...

I know we all have our favorite Riesling. Mine is from Nearstein am Rhein, first purchased there in 1962 for $.80. (Note that it's 80 cents!). I I enjoyed this article since it gives me 10 more Rieslings to try. I didn't think of it as the "ultimate" list. Wine tastes, like so many things in life, is subjective.

BS without Finger Lakes or Germany what kind of crap is this unacceptable. More and More I am seeing how much advertising is worth on this site. 13+% alc. in a riesling must have been Parker's shot palate tasting.

I agree about the Finger Lakes' Reislings. Dr. Frank and Herman Weimer can compete with the best of them..There are many other great Reisings in that area also. Article seems to have overlooked an obvious winning area.

Marrko Vineyards & Haperfield Vineyards in Ohio, Sand Castle in PA are a must for the list. Many Rieslings have a slight spitz in the finish, a sure sign that the wine was not aged long enough before bottling. Had a Sand Castle '91 at a library tasting, still wonderful after all those years!

it was a "short" list guys...there were a lot of wines "not" on it. don't knock the list because some of everyones favs were not on it? i've had many of the non-listed and they were some very good wines...i agree. constructive is what i think is an ok response here...not the nonsense? love the passion in some of replies though. just gotta be a bit more respectiveful i suppose? maybe a more extensive piece can be added with a wider range of Riesling in it? i gotta say "can't please everyone" can be a bitch! lol!

Chateau St Michelle here in Woodinville WA the largest producer of Riesling IN THE WORLD hosts their Riesling R event every even year and over 600 producers from around the world show up....if you like Riesling this is the place to be....last year some great Rieslings from Finger Lakes and Michigan were there but I still love Alsation and CSM's Eroica Riesling along with Trust Cellars out of Walla Walla WA........a sleeper but excellent.

My husband and I have tasted some of the Rieslings mention but we are still looking for a DRY Riesling. The kind I grew up with in Germany. As a matter of fact back than the word Riesling was almost synonymous with dry. However, here in the US they are usually sweet.

I agree with most comments that many of these are likely to be overly alcoholic. 13% for a sweet Riesling is likely to be too heavy on the palate. OR is probably the warmest climate this grape can be grown successfully, and the Chahalem and Brooks Dry Rieslings I tried were very good, although recently I had an 04 Chahalem past it's peak. The 02 Heron Hill Dry Riesling (Finger Lakes) was still good. Although only two examples, it suggests to me that the West Coast Rieslings do not have as much acidity as Eastern Rieslings, and will not keep as long.

The others are right, more eastern Rieslings and a few more in a dry style would be appropriate, especially for a followup article.

An Australian Riesling I love is Pewsey Vale's beautiful, bone-dry rendition. @schellbe, I agree with you on the alcohol issue-- when I see 13% on a Riesling, I immediately suspect I won't get the clean, acidic quality I prefer in my Rieslings!

And @profiler54 & @LisaHoven: I fear you missed "New World" in the title of the article. Of course we Riesling lovers love Alsatian Rieslings, but no matter how great they are, they aren't from the New World! With the number of interesting examinations of wines that appear on Snooth, it's just a matter of time until "Old World Riesling Round-up" appears.

I have noticed all too frequently in comment sections ranging from newspapers to blogs, that some people use anonymity to vent anger and exhibit rudeness. Maybe a type of Road Rage on the computer? Anyway, the title of this article states "New World..." and the subtitle "10 picks to Taste..." It was not dismissive of Germany or Alsace, nor did it imply that the states growing Riesling that were not mentioned were inferior. It simply suggested 10 Rieslings. I love to try new wines, so it's helpful for me to read these types of articles. Thanks Snooth.

Then after all that not a single Australian Riesling in the review-? But folks, take my word for it, if you want to get away from the higher alcohol/sweeter styles try and get you hands on some from the Claire Valley or Frankland River regions. Be among the first to get on board the Frankland River train if you can find them, and you will see why it will soon become Riesling Central. Dry and minerally, bracing acidity, etherial floral notes, balance and structure.
And much cheaper that anything from Europe.

I just got back from Prince Edward County and thoroughly enjoyed two Rieslings from some fairly new wineries. I hope I can compare my notes with a future Snooth review including this small region of Canada.

To the people asking where the German and other Rieslings are, the title says New World. That being said, I understand that this is just a list of 10 Riesling to try, however, rarely if ever have I seen, as other people have said, anything east of the Rockies mentioned. We have a few acceptable Rieslings here in central PA. Not outstanding but good. For better Rieslings I drive about 2 1/2 hours north to the Finger Lakes in NY. You can't drive more than a mile, or so it seems, around Seneca Lake without finding a winery. Several of these wineries have been mentioned in these posts. And there a dry Riesling to be found in the Finger Lakes.

My first Riesling was on a trip through Europe in 1978. I ordered a white wine with dinner as did several other people. The wine we were drinking was a '76 Mosel Riesling. I think I still have a paper around somewhere with the name of the winery. Years later I found out that '76 was a great year for Riesling. Priced one at Disney World in the mid-80s. If I remember correctly, it was over $100 per bottle.

Perhaps you have never had a Riesling from Vereinigte Hospitien. I would put their Scharzhofberger Auslese up against any of the brands you mention. The 1999, 2003 and 2005 are absolutely wonderful with the only downside being that they are very hard to find.